Whats up everyone,
I’m a newb and I have a feeling that my squats need better form. I work out at home in my garage so it’s hard for me to find help with this kind of stuff. I’m not lifting heavy, I want to make sure I get the proper form down right first. I used to lift in high school and really hurt my back, probably thanks to ego and bad form. So please check out my form and let me know what I should do different. Let me know if another angle would be better.
Thanks,
Ben

They provide a more stable base (not such an issue now but once you start pushing heavier weight…) and they reduce the demands on ankle mobility - which you dont really have an issue with so not applicable to you (though there may be less stress through the knee so that could still benenfit you)

Overall your squat looks okay however I believe it can be modified slightly for optimal movement. In my opinion here are a few things you could try. If anyone has any other suggestions feel free.

Knees seem to be moving a little too forward over the toes. Try warming up with a bodyweight box squat. Were you can focus on lowering yourself slowly down into a seated position. After you’ve mastered that movement using that same movement pattern grab a kettlebell and perform a couple sets of goblet squats as well.

Towards the end range of the lowering phase of your squat your pelvis seems to dip downward. This is termed the “butt wink”. This is normally okay as long as your spine does not go into lumbar flexion but it seems you may be going into that unwanted flexion. This usually has to do with some mobility issues in the hip flexors so along with the goblets squats, I would try stretching of the hip flexors as well as SMR with a foam roller prior to performing a squat.

As far as your heel lifting off the floor. It may be due to you weightshifting forward and depending more on your anterior muscles to do the heavy lifting. What I’ve found works best is trying to squat barefoot (or with socks on). This will allow you to actually feel the floor and where exactly the forces are being exerted off of. Try to push equally off your hind foot (heel) as well as the area around your big toe and the outside of your foot.

an easy fix for butt-wink is to get a box and set it at a height just before your hips start to round, and squat touch-and-go style to the box (that means just touching it gently and coming back up - no pause).

good advice here by all, i will add stretching calves and doing glute activation work (and glute medius, the outside of your hip) and general mobility stuff. Reason being is that while lifting shoes will really help, they will really only mask the underlying issues for a while and allow your ankles and other things to stiffen further.

Now I am definitely not against lifting shoes at all. They do allow more stable surface which is half the problem and they do help you with ankle mobility in the short term. They may also male it feel more comfortable or natural to squat, though that is a personal taste thing mostly. They just don’t help the underlying cause–like a lifting belt doesnt help ab weakness.